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Demonstrations against Swedish surveillance

I’m posting some thumbnails of pictures I took of a demonstration in Stockholm on Tuesday, coinciding with the opening of the Riksdag (Swedish Parliament) after the summer. It was cold and cloudy; moreover the event lasted the whole day (similar demonstrations also occurred in Göteborg (Gothenburg) and Malmö), so these things may have contributed to there being hundreds of people instead of thousands.

Nevertheless it was in a good spirit and this is just a part of the resistance, if you will, and it was quite impressive to see basically the whole political spectrum speak out against FRA and the plans for mass surveillance.

Also, several Members of Parliament – who previously did not participate in the vote, or abstained on the ballot – now pledged to revoke the law and start from scratch. If the vote would have been today, we would expect that the law would not pass.

Inside sources claim that the Prime Minister (Fredrik Reinfeldt) has ordered his party not to speak about the law, and if they must do so, speak only in technical terms. Also, the original proposal from the government has been followed by only a minimum (actually, barely any) amount of time for organizations to react, and it seems they will try to do the same thing again when they present a revised (read: cosmetically changed) proposal. Despite this there was harsh criticism from many instances, which the government ignored. The debates have been pretty much for show, as far as the government is concerned.

The way the government acted could be conflicting with the Swedish constitution, and investigations are now being called for. Despite the attempts to avoid a debate, this issue is not going away. Soon, there may also be a motion which tears apart the law. If it gets carried, we can expect a significant crisis within the government. It’s time for them, and the people, to wake up and see the flood of surveillance proposals threatening the very values that the governing parties claim to believe in.